Beamish’s Great North Festival of Transport 2013

Posted on Monday 22 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

The Spring transport event at Beamish, The Living Museum of the North saw a major expansion in 2013 with the Great North Steam Fair joined by Our Friends Electric and Old King Coal to make a 12 day spectacular called Great North Festival of Transport. The event commenced with Our Friends Electric between 4 and 7 April where the 40th anniversary of the tramway was to be celebrated with the Great North Steam Fair then taking place between 11 and 14 April. The Festival concluded with Old King Coal from 18 to 21 April which still had transport elements included. British Trams Online attended three days of the event (two of Our Friends Electric and one of the Great North Steam Fair) and our report of the Festival follows from Gareth Prior.

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Balloons 701 & 723 join Blackpool’s heritage fleet

Posted on Sunday 21 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Following the news that Blackpool Balloon 701 will be used on Blackpool Transport’s heritage tram service during May, even more good news can now be revealed – sister car 723 is also set to join the heritage tram fleet and will be back in service during May as well! Both of these trams are being prepared to provide some extra variety and interest for fans of Blackpool’s traditional trams; yet another surefire sign that the company is committed to making a success of the heritage aspect of the tramway operations.

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Heritage Trams for the next week…

Posted on Saturday 20 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

As part of our feature “Support our Heritage Tramways” we will continue to bring you a weekly look at when and where you can travel on heritage trams across the UK. Once again if you know of any errors or omissions please let us know and we will make the change. All the information here is given in good faith but you are advised to check before travelling any significant distance with the organisations involved.

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Llandudno & Colwyn Bay 7 gets ready for 1940s weekend in Colwyn Bay

Posted on Saturday 20 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

On Friday 19 April the Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Electric Railway Society’s replica tram 7 was awoken from its slumbers in preparation for its first public appearance of 2013 at the 1940s Weekend taking place in Colwyn Bay on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 April. This is the first time in over 11 months that 7 has been seen in public following a problem with the 68 year old “Matador” which was previously used to haul the tram around the local area.

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Rochdale overhead wires are live

Posted on Saturday 20 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

The overhead wires recently installed between the current Railway Station terminus and the future Town Centre terminus in Rochdale have now gone live as progress continues on bringing Metrolink into the town ahead of an opening early next year.

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First on street track is laid for NET Phase Two

Posted on Saturday 20 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

Another milestone in the construction of Phase Two of Nottingham Express Transit has been reached with the first section of on street track welded into place in The Meadows. Eighty metres of track has been secured into position on Meadows Way along the route which will carry the line to Chilwell via Beeston.

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Metrolink Service Performance Update

Posted on Saturday 20 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

The latest statistics on how Manchester Metrolink has been performing recently have now been released on the TfGM Committee website. These statistics give details on the performance of the service, any major incidents, trams out of service and the number of complaints which have been received during periods 9, 10 and 11 (Monday 10 December 2012 to Sunday 3 March 2013).

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Who wants to hear a song on London Tramlink?

Posted on Saturday 20 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

Eccentronic, described as a musical comedy duo from Croydon, have recently unveiled their latest creation – a song on their home town’s tram system. Entitled “Croydon Tram” the song comes in at just short of three minutes and to be honest words fail me and I don’t think there is much more I can write in this article about it! If anyone wants to listen to the song and view the video you can find it on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_cwmLYuJOU&feature=player_embedded.

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Short list of bidders for new DLR franchise revealed

Posted on Wednesday 17 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

Transport for London (TfL) have revealed the shortlist of companies bidding for the new Docklands Light Railway (DLR) franchise which is due to commence from 15th September 2014. Included in the firms bidding are the current incumbent Serco along with the Stagecoach Rail Projects Ltd, a joint venture between Keolis (UK) Ltd and Amey Rail Ltd and a joint venture between Go Ahead PLC and Colas Rail Ltd.

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Extra services for Sheffield Marathon on 12th May 2013

Posted on Wednesday 17 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

Stagecoach Supertram are to operate early morning services again on Sunday 12th May for the Sheffield Marathon after the success of operating them last year. The first trams will depart Halfway at 0612, Middlewood at 0623 and Meadowhall at 0701 and there will then be further extra trams from Middlewood and Meadowhall before the normal Sunday timetable kicks in. The start of the Marathon will be at the Don Valley Stadium and it is  hoped these extra services will allow competitors to get to the start line in plenty of time for the start of the race. Unlike the London Marathon any competitors will have to pay for their travel with the press release (which contains the wrong date of the race!) pointing them towards the excellent value of the Dayrider ticket.

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Blackpool’s Blundell Street line disabled

Posted on Tuesday 16 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

One of the most historically significant sections of tramway in Britain has been rendered unuseable, following the removal of the overhead wires above it. The line in question is the emergency access to Blackpool’s Rigby Road depot, which is connected to the main line via pointwork at Foxhall Square. However, the wiring at this junction has now been disconnected, with the wires over Princess Street and Blundell Street likely to follow imminently.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway | 7 Comments

Metrolink Victoria stop to be closed temporarily whilst redevelopment works take place

Posted on Tuesday 16 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

Transport for Greater Manchester have announced plans for the major redevelopment of the tramstop at Victoria which will see it completely redesigned to provide new platforms to increase capacity and allow more trams through Victoria in light of the additional services coming onto the network in the future. As a result of this work taking place it will be necessary for all tram movements through Victoria to take place on a single line of track and TfGM are proposing to close Victoria to passengers whilst this work is undertaken.

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink | 8 Comments

London Tramlink Engineering Works: Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st April

Posted on Tuesday 16 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

There will be no trams between Arena and Beckenham Junction on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st April with a replacement bus service running Elmers End-Birkbeck-Beckenham Road-Beckenham Junction. Trams will continue to operate on all other routes throughout the weekend.

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Leeds 6 runs to Lakeside

Posted on Monday 15 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Since its return to the Heaton Park Tramway following an extended stay at Beamish Museum, a great deal of work has already been undertaken on Leeds 6 to reverse the effects of many months of outside storage. The tram has made a number of runs under its own power since coming home, although it has not yet been approved for public service.

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Beamish pull out all the stops for Great North Steam Fair

Posted on Sunday 14 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The second installment of Beamish Museum’s Great North Festival of Transport, the 2013 Great North Steam Fair event, has been taking place at the museum between Thursday 11th and Sunday 14th April. As usual, this event has featured a whole host of steam engines and many other historic vehicles being demonstrated around the whole site, including vintage cars, buses, traction engines, steam rollers, fire engines, and of course plenty of trams! Both members of the British Trams Online team were in attendance on Saturday 13th April, which turned out to be a pretty remarkable day.

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Another T68A bites the dust

Posted on Friday 12 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

2004 has become the second of the T68As to be withdrawn from service in Manchester, following hot on the heels of 2006 which was taken out of service last week. 2004 last  ran in service on 28th March but was lingered on around Queens Road depot until Friday 12th April when it was officially taken out of service.

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Midland Metro all set for reopening

Posted on Friday 12 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

Services will resume on Midland Metro as planned on Monday 15th April following the completion of work to allow the new CAF trams to be able to operate smoothly across the whole network. All platforms have been narrowed by approximately 100mm during a two week closure of the complete line between Birmingham Snow Hill and Wolverhampton St George’s in preparation for the first of the new trams to start operation in 2014.

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Heritage Trams for the next week…

Posted on Friday 12 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

As part of our feature “Support our Heritage Tramways” we will continue to bring you a weekly look at when and where you can travel on heritage trams across the UK. Once again if you know of any errors or omissions please let us know and we will make the change. All the information here is given in good faith but you are advised to check before travelling any significant distance with the organisations involved.

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Blackpool ‘Balloonatic’ Bank Holidays for May

Posted on Friday 12 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Following the success of the heritage tram operation in Blackpool over the Easter holiday period, Blackpool Transport have confirmed some of their initial plans for the two forthcoming Bank Holiday weekends in May. It is hoped to run all of the operational Balloon cars still in Blackpool over these two long weekends, along with a few other members of the retained heritage tram fleet.

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NET services to resume ahead of schedule

Posted on Thursday 11 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

Services on Nottingham Express Transit will return to normal on Friday 12th April – three days ahead of schedule – following the completion of trackworks at the Noel Street crossing. Trams had only been able to operate between Station Street and The Forest and Wilkinson Street and Phoenix Park/Hucknall since Friday 29th March whilst this major engineering project was undertaken with a replacement bus service in operation over the closed sections.

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